176-acre farm sells for €1.975m

More than 100 people were present at Corrin Mart, Fermoy, yesterday to witness the €1.975m sale of a residential farm near Blarney, Co Cork.

The 176-acre holding at Dawstown was auctioned off after three generations of ownership by the Applebe family, in a retirement sale.

The property is well-known as a location for point-to-point races for many years.

The farm was given a conservative guide price of €9,000 per acre — or a total of €1.58m — but it ended up making close €2m.

According to selling agents Eamonn O’Brien and Tom Kelly of CCM, there was a huge and enthusiastic turnout.

“We had a full house at Corrin and we opened at €1.25m,” said Eamonn O’Brien.

“We had 20 bidders climbing in €50,000s — from €1.25m to €1.3m until we had €1.75m in the bag. Such was the interest that we had eight different bidders.

“It went on the market at €1.75m and went as far as €1.9m. After that the bids went up in €25,000s. We had three more bids and then finished it out at €1.975m — €375,000 over the guide price.”

The modest €9,000 per acre guide reflected the investment needed to work the farm afterwards, said Mr O’Brien, but the sale achieved €11,220 an acre.